You know it's time to start a PTR when......Update 1/12 Leaving in 10 hours!!!!!!!!!!

[gellybean]

You start seeing hidden Mickey's in your Cheerios !


Cast of Characters:

A very squinty family portrait from our last trip in Jan 09

Elastigirl: me (30) Just turned 30 this past week and I still love WDW as much as I did when I was 13! SAHM to my two boys. Lover of reading, TV, scrapbooking, Disney, Texas sports, Disney, and my boys!

Mr. Incredible: DH (31) Will be turning 32 on this trip. Restaurant manager that works too, too many hours. His first trip to Disney was in Jan 09 and I thank God that he liked it! I'm a blessed woman to have a hubby that likes WDW too!!!

Dash: DS1 (6) This is his celebration trip too!! He'll turn 7 the day after we get back. He loves WDW. This will be his 3rd trip to the World and he's planning on going to Disneyland again this summer with relatives. A very smart and sweet boy!! Loves pirates!! Dressed as Cap'n Jack tonight for Halloween.

Jack-Jack: DS2 (21 mths) Another celebrator!! Will be 2 the day after we get home. (yes they have the same birthday, exactly five years apart ) He went last year for the first time and was a very good sport but wasn't really into a whole lot. This year will be a whole 'nother ballgame. Aside from the terrible two's and the level of independence he's demanding, he's bound to notice a lot more around him. While this is exciting because he'll get to experience more of the magic, it's always going to be a challenge when he wants O U T out of his stroller!! I'm both dreading and looking forward to the challenges of taking a 2 yr old to WDW!

More recent picture of the boys​

Welcome everyone. It's time to get things rolling. We are leaving in a little over two months. Amazing how time flies when you don't plan trips 12 months in advance! This will be my second TR. Sadly, I never finished my first one. I got all the way to the last day and just never went back and finished. For those of you that were reading and posting along I'm truly sorry. I know what I did wrong, and why it was so hard to finish it and I won't be making that mistake again. So please give me another chance!!

My mistake was trying to draw out the trip report to make it last. What I ended up accomplishing instead was losing momentum!

So enough about my previous TR bad behavior and onto how this trip came about....


It's not like I didn't want to go back. I always want to go back. I want to go back as soon as we get on the ME to the airport. But I swore I wouldn't take Dash out of school again. It's not a problem for our district, and I'm very hands on so I make sure he gets plenty of practice reading, with math, etc while we're away. It was the fact that he had 2 absences the entire first semester and 15 the second!!!!! He ended up with a nasty virus right around Easter that turned into Pneumonia! And this was right before the news of the H1N1 virus hit. We all had stomach issues at the same time. A nasty little stomach bug and then Dash had the stomach issues plus the Upper Respiratory Infection that turned into Pneumonia. Don't think I didn't wonder if we had the H1N1 flu before people even knew what it was.... cus I wondered a lot. I mean we live in Texas and ground zero was Mexico. Not a huge stretch.

But I digress....


I do that.


Anyway, so Dash ended up missing way more school that I had ever intended. So I said never again. We'd go at Spring Break instead. Well..... never say never.

We originally were planning on going at Spring Break. Scratch that. We ORIGINALLY were planning on a couples trip in September for our anniversary, with free dining. That got cancelled. Which killed me. Cus we had a PIN. An elusive pin. Never mind that free dining was going to be offered to the general public later on, we had a PIN!! And I wanted to use it!!

THEN we were planning a trip with my entire extended family for Spring Break. That fell through when my brother was laid off unexpectedly.

So I still wanted to go back. I mean I'd gotten the planning bug pretty bad thinking of our extended family trip. So when the 4/3 deal came out again, I mentioned it to my mom (who went with us on our last trip) and she volunteered two airfare tickets from her Rapid Rewards account. Score!!!! her!! So with the 4/3 deal, and the airline tickets, how could we not go back!!!!????

I started looking at dates. December is always a no no because of holiday parties for Mr. Incredible at work. Busy time of year for the restaurant business. There was a great weekend in February, because Dash would have a 4 day weekend. It just happened to be Valentine's weekend. Another big no no for a restaurant manager. So I started looking at January again... We went the 22-28th last year and it was more crowded than I thought it would be. Most CM's said it was because of the 4/3 deal. So I figured, if it's gonna be crowded anyway, might as well go on MLK weekend and take advantage of the 3 day weekend. AND by going before the 20th, we'd squeak our Jack-Jack into a lap baby ticket and avoid paying for his ticket. So all we had to do was buy Dash airfare and we were golden!!

The original plan was to only take Dash out of school for 4 days this year instead of 5 as we were going around a 3 day weekend. But alas, Southwest airlines had changed their direct flight's time from leaving at 1:30pm to 10:20am. This meant I couldn't send Dash to school in the morning to stay long enough to be counted for attendance before pulling him out to make our flight. He has to be there until 9:30am in the morning to be counted as present for the day. 50 mins is cutting it way to close to get to the airport and get on a plane. We debated....a lot... about taking a later flight... a flight that wouldn't be non-stop, that would be 6 hrs travel time instead of 2 1/2. A flight that would mean getting there too late to go into a park on the first day, essentially making our trip a 6 day trip, instead of 7.

Ultimately, I decided that the difference in 4 days in abstentia vs. 5 days was negligible. I mean if we're commited to taking him out 4 already, it's really splitting hairs to care about one extra day. I've already talked to the principal about this and she's all for it. We know the importance of reading on a daily basis, as 1st grade is a huge reading year. And we feel that Disney will provide tons of reading opportunities along the way. Plus we'll be bringing along all his make up work and readers.

So the dates we are going are Jan 12th - Jan 19th.

The boy's turn 7 and 2 respectively on the 20th. So when I say we're squeaking Jack-Jack under the lap baby radar, I mean we are SQUEAKING him under. I'll have to provide a birth certificate to prove he's not 2 as he's a pretty big boy!


So now you know the who, the why and the when ....​

Stay tuned for the where!!​

​

​

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm in!

Your boys are so adorable!

It's neat that we will be there at the same time!

 

[gellybean]

YAY!!! A reader!!!!

Thanks for joining in LL!!! It is cool that we'll be there the same time



And thanks for saying my kids are cute I'm partial to them myself!

 

[faerieprincess]

i'm here i'm here i'm here!

and i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited that you get to go back so soon! since i won't be going this year i am going vicariously through you... and this time when you text me that you're in the PoP gift shop i'll be able to picture it in my head

And PS..... your boys ARE definitely VERY adorable! (i'm not biased at all.... )

lulu!

 

[gellybean]

i'm here i'm here i'm here!

and i'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited that you get to go back so soon! since i won't be going this year i am going vicariously through you... and this time when you text me that you're in the PoP gift shop i'll be able to picture it in my head

And PS..... your boys ARE definitely VERY adorable! (i'm not biased at all.... )

lulu!

Hugssssssssssssssss twinnie!!! Wish you could go back too!! Thanks for joining in!! It's so much more fun planning with you!! And it IS great that you know where I'll be talking about/calling from!!


lulu!

 

[gellybean]

I know you're all dying to know the where!!!

But first a little more about the who!

For anyone that read my last TR, you know we had a few people joining in on our last trip. My mom, and Mr. Incredible's mom, sister and brother in law! It was a big group. And I had my fair share of stresses from planning for everyone. Thankfully most of it worked out!
This year my mom can't make it. She wants to go, I think she'll always want to go, but she's having problems with heel spurs and doesn't want to try a trip in a wheel chair yet. She's holding out hope that her heel spurs will get better!

My mother-in-law, however, will be joining. She lives very close to WDW and this is a great way for her to see her grandkids. I will say that she and I... um.... operate a little differently in the mornings... I can get out the door in 30 mins. She needs 3 hours! Needless to say, we didn't necessarily get off as early as we (ok ok *I*) wanted to most mornings. Which meant no early ADRs for breakfast, no rope drops, missing out on FPs for Soarin' and Toy Story Mania!!!

When DH and I were discussing going back, we knew it would be hard to not invite her. So I came up with a brilliant idea if I do say so myself!!

We invited her down for just the weekend. This way we'll have four days in the park as a family of 4. Something I'm looking forward to for many reasons!! We can get up early, and see how it'll be with just our little family. On the flip side, I'm a little nervous about this, too. We never had to do baby swap last year with both grandmothers there. Mr. Incredible and I got to ride a lot of the thrill rides just the two of us, and that was fun!! One of my favorite memories from our trip was TOT at Sunset just the two of us!

But getting to do it our way for four days will be great!!

Not that my MIL isn't an easy going, go with the flow kinda lady most of the time! She just got tired after so many days in the park and from having to get up every morning 3 hours before any of us did.

So we get to try it on our own for 4 days and she gets to not be so pooped at the end of the trip!! WIN WIN situation!!

She'll be joining this year on Saturday and staying for three nights. She's going to provide us a babysitting pass for one date night, just Mr. Incredible and I.


There is a possibility that Mr. Incredible's sister and brother in law may be joining us for the weekend as well. However, they are both swamped with work and other details and haven't made a decision yet. While this is a bit challenging for planning, I learned after last year that I can't control their actions, and I have to make my plans regardless and hope they can join us for certain ADRs and if we can't fit them in, then I'm sorry!! BUT I'm still gonna eat!


So for those of you that are counting... it'll be four of us for the first four days, with MIL joining on the fifth day and potentially SIL and BIL as well.


So now you know more of the who....

I promise next up the WHERE!!!​

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Subbing in and going back to read!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

OK, I'm done and waiting for the where....

 

[gellybean]

Wigd!!!! So happy to have readers!!!


@ the where.... Coming soon, I promise!!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I think that is a fine way to deal with MIL, a win win. You get a date night, some family time so you can make rope drops and such, sounds like a great plan!

 

[belle8306]

I'm enjoying your report. Your boys are so cute! I am looking forward to reading more!

 

[faerieprincess]

I promise next up the WHERE!!!​

i totally read that wrong

 

[gellybean]

I think that is a fine way to deal with MIL, a win win. You get a date night, some family time so you can make rope drops and such, sounds like a great plan!

Thanks!!! I thought it was a good idea, too!! Best of both worlds. I was pleased and relieved that I came up with a solution to my MIL being so close to WDW. Don't get me wrong, I love her and I love watching her with the kids, but the thought of my MIL joining in on EVERY SINGLE family vacation to my happy place, !! So this was a good compromise for all of us!

I'm enjoying your report. Your boys are so cute! I am looking forward to reading more!

AWWW thanks for the cute complement and thanks for reading!!!

i totally read that wrong

HAHAHAHAH!! I'm scared to ask!!!

 

[gellybean]

So on to the where.....


I know y'all are all dying to know.






When we first started planning this trip, I looked at a lot of options. As I always do. As if the Poly is magically going to cost what a value does if we stand on one leg while checking in on the fifth Thursday of the month.

But alas, the prices were still way out of our budget. Even with the 4/3 v. 5/2deal difference. I started looking at Pop Century, the resort I stayed at the last two trips I've taken. $1200 for the 3 of us as Jack-Jack is still 'free', which included 7 nights and 7 day base tickets. I seriously did consider booking Caribbean Beach. For our family, it would have meant an additional 200$ for the entire 7 nights. REALLY tempting. I mean when would we ever get to upgrade from Value to Moderate for that small of a difference.

And we probably would have upgraded. Except for MIL. Not that she wouldn't like to stay at CBR. I'm sure she'd love it. But for her room, for only 3 nights, without a room only discount (yet...?) it would be 300$ more to upgrade to CBR for just her 3 nights! So in fairness to her, how could I ask her to double her hotel budget to upgrade to a moderate? So I booked the MYW package for us and a room only for her for Pop Century.

We paid the deposits and were all set.


Til I had a dream one night.

Literally...... I woke up one morning and remembered my dream and thought I've got to call MIL and see if this will work!!

You see, Jack-Jack is FREE! Meaning he's under 3 and doesn't count toward the room maximum. Which means...... we could have say THREE adults, one child and one infant in ONE room at CBR!!

Hot dog!! I figured out a way to upgrade!!!!

So I texted Mr. Incredible first. Had to make sure that he was ok with his mother bunking down with us for 3 nights. I mean same shower, same room, etc. That's a lot to consider. Again, love my MIL but ittttty bitty living space.

Mr. I said it didn't matter to him either way, but he'd doubt that MIL would go for it. She's a pretty independent lady with definite ingrained habits that he felt would mean she'd insist on her own room. And in all fairness, she had previously told me she would never bunk down with her daughter and son-in-law. That she would never do that to her son-in-law. So I knew it was a long shot, but figured what the hey... ask anyway!

I called her and she said SURE!! If y'all don't mind, sounds fine with me! I was floored! But super excited. I mean I know this could make for an interesting 3 nights, but really it's just 3 nights, one of which will be a late date night for Mr. I and I and we'll be in the parks the majority of the time. And us four all sleep like the dead. So she'll be able to get up earlier than us and start getting ready and we'll most likely never hear her. Besides, I don't sleep that late when at Disney. I wrote up TR notes to the light of a muted Stacey many an early morning last trip.

I asked her if she would have a preference between CBR, CSR, or POFQ, explaining the theming differences and location etc. She said she'd like the island theme best, and since that was the one mod I was leaning towards, we were golden.

Until I looked up the rate again and no standard rooms were left.... The whole point of upgrading to Mod was to use the money MIL was going to be paying for her own room, and put it toward the upgrade. Remember it was a 200$ upgrade and her room at Pop would have been 300$. So she was actually going to be saving 100$.

The cheapest view was standard pirate or water view. 400$ difference from Pop.

Well, I got to thinking.... let me tell you, my husband generally cringes when he hears those words.

If we were willing to upgrade to Mod and it cost us 200 more, just exactly how much more would it be to upgrade to hmmmm let's say AKL?!?!?!?!?

I checked. And there were standard rooms available at AKL and with the 4/3 upgrade and MIL's 200$ contribution (cus I had already told her I'd save her 100$ and I wasn't gonna go back on that) upgrading to AKL was an extra 400$ for us.


I have priced a many a trip to WDW in my 30 years and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I've never seen an upgrade from Value to Deluxe for 7 nights that would only cost 400$ more. So I txted Mr. I immediately.... and got the response.... "$400 is a big jump baby."

To which I txted back "But just think... we could walk down to Jiko for our date night, and not feel bad about staying late since we know they are just down the hall, and we can go to the lounge at night and have a cocktail, and we can try Boma for breakfast and we could have Zebra domes EVERYDAY"

To which I got the following reply "You should be in marketing."




See we had been to AKL last January for a date night to Jiko and we both AKL. Which honestly surprised me. I'm not one to like zoo's, AK is my least favorite park, you'd never catch me wearing animal print, mostly because the stripes NEVER go the right way.

But we loved that resort. The dark wood, the squishy giraffe print carpets, Jiko, the bridges, the gift shop, the sitting areas, the rocking chairs, the firepits, the winding water stream from Jiko to Mara..... Loved it!! We had actually booked it for our couples only trip that we had to cancel. So getting to stay at AKL was a dream for both of us.

I had thought, since I was 13 and first toured Deluxe resorts for fun, that my dream stay would be WL. Just goes to show you never know until you try something new! I would have never in a million years thought I'd pick AKL over WL! Who knew!


And I knew when I got that last text that I had convinced him that it was worth 400$. Santa may have to shop at the Dollar Store. We may have to eat a lot of beans and rice between now and January, but it's gonna be worth every single gas pain.

I called MIL to make sure she wouldn't mind a safari themed hotel, and explained why CBR had ended up being more costly to upgrade to than I had said it would be and we were able to swing the upgrade since it was a once in a lifetime upgrade to a deluxe resort. I don't know that she fully understands what the difference in value and deluxemeans.... she's never been to AKL. She visited 'Ohana with us so she saw the difference in Pop and Poly... so maybe she's a little bit excited too. But she was with it.

I called Disney and asked the one question I was scared would bring all these thoughts of mine to a screeching halt. Can you have a guest for 3 nights without them being on the same package? And if so, how much for an extra adult? His first answer was ... yes you, can declare a guest for a partial stay and they do not have to be on the same package. But AKL would not allow 5 people in a room.





Wait!! I said. One of those people will be under 3. Oh! He says, then sure no problem!




I feel sorry for people that call and are clueless. Cus he totally didn't pick up on what I said said originally about knowing the child under 3 didn't count. Don't get me wrong, I don't think he was trying to pull one over on me. Just didn't catch all the details. Thankfully I already knew that if we were ever going to have MIL stay in the same room as us, without upgrading to a 'deluxe room' at a Deluxe hotel, it would have to be this trip before Jack-Jack turns 3!


That minor scare out of the way, and with the knowledge that it would be an extra 25$ a night for the three nights MIL would be there due upon her cking in, the CM was able to make the upgrade, with the 4/3 code, cancel MIL's room only ressie and we got to keep the same confirmation #. Let me tell y'all, I was walking on air the rest of the day!!!!


Total package with MYW base tickets, for our party of 4 = $1815

Minus the deposit, minus MIL's 200$, we owe $1415 by Nov 28th. We would have owed $996 for the Pop stay.

So the Where is...... Animal Kingdom Lodge!

The When is .... Jan 12-19th, 2010

The Why is.... because we love it and my 3 boys birthdays are within 3 days of each other in January.

The Who is.... definitely Mr. I, myself, Dash and Jack-Jack for 7 nights, MIL for 3 nights, and potentially BIL and SIL at some point.

Transportation to the World... SW Airlines non-stop flights out of Austin


So now that you know all of that information....

Stay tuned for the What in the World are we gonna EAT!!!! ​

 

[Lady Lallie]

Awww, that was a great update!

I was smiling along with you when you upgraded to AKL! That is fantastic! You have just gotta love that 4/3 deal!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm in!!! I loved your last report - even though it didn't get finished.

AKL!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!! Gotta love that 4/3 deal and what a GREAT price!!!!

Smart move on the MIL just coming for the weekened. Doing the baby swap isn't bad at all - I've met lots of nice strangers on various rides using the baby swap. Plus, you can now get 2 fast passes, one with your ticket, one with your DH's - and use the baby swap for the other person. It works really slick!

 

[belle8306]

AKL is so pretty! I haven't stayed there but I have eaten at Boma and I loved the feeling of the lobby. I can't wait to see your pictures!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

AKL, how awesome! Great update....
Waiting now on the eating!

 

[gellybean]

Awww, that was a great update!

I was smiling along with you when you upgraded to AKL! That is fantastic! You have just gotta love that 4/3 deal!

Awww!! Thanks LL! Love that 4/3 deal! We took advantage of it last year, at the value resort. The fact that they switched it to a 5/2 at Value this year, made the upgrade more doable. If we got 3 nights free at Pop too, I doubt I could have justified the extra expense of AKL! Splitting hairs maybe, but it made a difference in my mind!

I'm in!!! I loved your last report - even though it didn't get finished.

AKL!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!! Gotta love that 4/3 deal and what a GREAT price!!!!

Smart move on the MIL just coming for the weekened. Doing the baby swap isn't bad at all - I've met lots of nice strangers on various rides using the baby swap. Plus, you can now get 2 fast passes, one with your ticket, one with your DH's - and use the baby swap for the other person. It works really slick!

Brook!!! Thank you for reading along again!!!
Thanks for the advice on the baby swap. I may have to ask more questions as it gets closer. for the AKL!! I've been reading the Jambo thread some, just haven't jumped in yet!!

AKL is so pretty! I haven't stayed there but I have eaten at Boma and I loved the feeling of the lobby. I can't wait to see your pictures!

I loved the lobby too! It totally changed my opinion on what Deluxe I'd stay at given the opportunity. There will be pictures. Oh there will be pictures!! I'm determined to take even more this year than last!

AKL, how awesome! Great update....
Waiting now on the eating!

I thought it was pretty awesome too!!

Where oh where could we possibly want to eat in all of WDW??? Oh the choices. And the opinions. And the changing of the opionions. I'll let y'all know soon, promise.

 

[gellybean]

For Brook and Sare and whomever else was reading my TR that I failed to finish...


A foolish TR finally finished ( like my title twinnie??)


Here is a link to the TR from Jan 09 Hop, Skip and a Week!! A TR full of Mayhem, Masticating and Mortification! if anyone else would like to read it before reading what this post is going to be.... the FINAL installment. I know I could ask a mod to reopen the TR but really, for one post? I figured I'd just highjack my own PRT. IF that's possible.




Without further ado....


We actually managed to get up fairly early the last day. It was our second day in Epcot and I wasn't about to miss Soarin'. I mean, I'd already missed Wishes, FOUR times. I wasn't gonna miss Soarin'. So I took a proactive approach and asked Mr. I to bring breakfast back to the room. Breakfast for all of us, including MIL (she was referred to as Mary Poppins in the TR). So Mr. Incredible got up a little early and got ready a little faster and went and got us all something light for breakfast, as we had a reservation for lunch. So we made it to Epcot by 10am ish. Stopped to take a few pics.

Mr. I and I in front of the ball!


Then we parked the moms and the boys and Mr. I and I went to the Land to get the Soarin' FPs. When we got back, we found Dash with TWO more pins. Some nice gentleman had seen that he was wearing one sole pin on his t-shirt and gave him two more. Love the Magic!!!

After scoring 5 FPs, we made our way out of FW and decided to head to our ADR via the Mexico side because we had already covered the other half of the WS on Friday. The WS was fairly empty and we weren't in a huge hurry. It was around 11 by this time and our reservation wasn't til 12 at Tutto Italia. MIL and Mr. I are HUGE Italian food fans. So this was a big reservation for us. I was nervous we wouldn't like the changes but to be honest, I wasn't a huge fan when it was the original Alfredo's either.

We took the "short-cut" bridge back behind the Odyssey ? pavilion and then made our way around. We didn't go into any countries... just didn't. I think we thought we'd head back after lunch and just wanted to soak it all in.

We took more pictures...

Mr. I and his Mom, laughing at me about something

Another one of Mr. I and myself. I rocked the Crocs that day. They felt so good after being in tennis shoes all trip. My foot was some better.

and more pictures...

Jack-Jack cheesing it up. Love this one!

Dash and his Pirates shades! Notice all the pins! We're gonna get him a lanyard and make it official next trip. He really likes collecting things and what better than Disney Pins!

and more pictures........

Dash and Jack-Jack together!

Couldn't resist this pic

My absolute favorite artsy fartsy pic from the trip. I had it printed as an 8x10 and it'll be hung on the blue wall in the office

MIL loves Italy!!

Love this one! Mr. I was watching Jack-Jack while I went photog-ing!

My mom! Looking fabulous for 66! This is a traditional photo op spot for us, we have lots of pics from this fountain over the years!

Finally I checked us in around 11:45 and they sat us pretty quickly.


Our server was Marco and he was awesome!! Loved him! So funny. He really spent time with Jack-Jack - was too cute. All the servers kept walking by and touching Jack-Jack's hair and saying bellisimo! Too sweet.

Jack-Jack with Marco.

Marco showing us his tongue... for some reason. lol

Lunch was yummy! I didn't enjoy my entree as much, I had wanted the Bucatini Gratinati but it was no longer on the menu. I ordered what I thought was the dish that sounded the most simlar. But it was a farfalle and it wasn't baked and ooey gooey. But everything else was phenomenal! The calamari was the best we've ever had and we have had it a lot of places. They had a white bean brushetta dish for an appetizer that was wonderful. My mom's eggplant appetizer she ordered as an entree was great! Mr. I's pasta primavera was soooooooooooo good. The pasta tasted homemade whereas my farfalle was dry and overcooked. So who knows. But he was sweet enough to trade me at the end of eating, so I got the last few bites of his.

Jack-Jack ate until he was stuffed!

Mr. I couldn't shoove it in fast enough to suit Jack-Jack!

Well on his way to miserable. We cut him off at this point!


There were a lot of birthdays that day so we knew what was coming. Which was good, cus those cute Italian boys are LOUD! They sang to both boys and brought birthday desserts. They were yummy too!!

Dash concentrating on his umptenth birthday sweet

Continued in next post....